Politics   

of sterility in married persons. The neglect of this subject, which in
existing states is so common, is a never-failing cause of poverty
among the citizens; and poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
Pheidon the Corinthian, who was one of the most ardent legislators,
thought that the families and the number of citizens ought to remain
the same, although originally all the lots may have been of different
sizes: but in the Laws the opposite principle is maintained. What in
our opinion is the right arrangement will have to be explained
hereafter.
There is another omission in the Laws: Socrates does not tell us how
the rulers differ from their subjects; he only says that they should
be related as the warp and the woof, which are made out of different
wools. He allows that a man's whole property may be increased
fivefold, but why should not his land also increase to a certain
extent? Again, will the good management of a household be promoted by
his arrangement of homesteads? For he assigns to each individual two
homesteads in separate places, and it is difficult to live in two
houses.
The whole system of government tends to be neither democracy nor
oligarchy, but something in a mean between them, which is usually
called a polity, and is composed of the heavy-armed soldiers. Now, if
he intended to frame a constitution which would suit the greatest
number of states, he was very likely right, but not if he meant to say
that this constitutional form came nearest to his first or ideal
state; for many would prefer the Lacedaemonian, or, possibly, some
other more aristocratic government. Some, indeed, say that the best
constitution is a combination of all existing forms, and they praise
the Lacedaemonian because it is made up of oligarchy, monarchy, and
democracy, the king forming the monarchy, and the council of elders
the oligarchy while the democratic element is represented by the
Ephors; for the Ephors are selected from the people. Others, however,
declare the Ephoralty to be a tyranny, and find the element of
democracy in the common meals and in the habits of daily life. In the
Laws it is maintained that the best constitution is made up of
democracy and tyranny, which are either not constitutions at all, or
are the worst of all. But they are nearer the truth who combine many
forms; for the constitution is better which is made up of more
numerous elements. The constitution proposed in the Laws has no
element of monarchy at all; it is nothing but oligarchy and democracy,
leaning rather to oligarchy. This is seen in the mode of appointing
magistrates; for although the appointment of them by lot from among
those who have been already selected combines both elements, the way
in which the rich are compelled by law to attend the assembly and vote
for magistrates or discharge other political duties, while the rest
may do as they like, and the endeavor to have the greater number of
the magistrates appointed out of the richer classes and the highest
officers selected from those who have the greatest incomes, both these
are oligarchical features. The oligarchical principle prevails also in
the choice of the council, for all are compelled to choose, but the
compulsion extends only to the choice out of the first class, and of
an equal number out of the second class and out of the third class,
but not in this latter case to all the voters but to those of the
first three classes; and the selection of candidates out of the fourth
class is only compulsory on the first and second. Then, from the
persons so chosen, he says that there ought to be an equal number of
each class selected. Thus a preponderance will be given to the better
sort of people, who have the larger incomes, because many of the lower
classes, not being compelled will not vote. These considerations, and
others which will be adduced when the time comes for examining similar
polities, tend to show that states like Plato's should not be composed
of democracy and monarchy. There is also a danger in electing the
magistrates out of a body who are themselves elected; for, if but a
small number choose to combine, the elections will always go as they
desire. Such is the constitution which is described in the Laws.